Westchester County Republicans Howard Arden, Matthew Rice and Kerry Lutz filed sufficient petition signatures with the Board of Elections to appear on the November ballot as Libertarian candidates in the Town of North Castle. Arden, a long-time Armonk resident, community volunteer and county businessman, is running for Town Supervisor. Rice and Lutz, both practicing attorneys, are seeking membership on the Town Council.

Critical of the many benefits local councilmembers receive, they each have vowed not to accept taxpayer-supported healthcare and retirement benefits for the part-time jobs.

New York Libertarian Party Chairman Mark Axinn stated, “The Libertarian Party is delighted to welcome both Republicans and Democrats who recognize that the two major parties stand for big government benefits at taxpayer expense. Only the Libertarian Party seeks smaller government and more freedom for all citizens.”

Additionally, Rochester Libertarians Drew Beeman, Max Kessler and Chris Edes are running for seats on the Monroe County Legislature.

“Now the people of Monroe County have the choice to get the government out of their wallets and out of their lives,” said Beeman.

The Libertarian Party is the nation’s third largest political party, standing for minimum government and maximum freedom.

New York experienced its most exciting campaign ever this year. Eight years ago, we barely broke 5000 votes for Governor. This year we got 48,386.

In fact, in the last eight years, the LPNY has gone from 5000 votes to 15,000 to over 48,000. Tripling the prior result every four years is truly a remarkable success story that hopefully every state can emulate.

But first we had to get on the ballot.

Without ballot access, the LP must petition for a place on to the ballot. The petitioning period is only six weeks long and 15,000 valid signatures must be submitted. New York is a challenge state and with many parties running candidates, we were certain to be challenged if we submitted less than at least 25,000 signatures.

In fact, we submitted almost 35,000 signatures. That could not have been done without the generous assistance of the National LP and the many contributions of local activists.

Significantly, this year we put together the strongest statewide ticket in 40 years, with candidates for Governor (Warren Redlich), Lt. Governor (Alden Link), Comptroller (John Gaetani), Attorney General (Carl Person) and two US Senate seats (Randy Credico and John Clifton).

As a result of being on the ballot, we were in the televised Governor’s debate.

As a result of the being in the debate, we were able to raise money for advertising.

As a result of both of those, we achieved the highest vote total for Governor in the forty-year history of the Party in New York.

New York is a model of success this year. We took a party with virtually no money and poor results in the past and achieved more good will and press this year than ever before. We tripled the result from the last election, which had tripled the result from the one before that.

This is truly something to be proud of and to build upon. I thank all of you who contributed to the LPNY and to the candidates’ campaigns throughout the election season.